Look into Alzheimer's eyes
Alzheimer's disease is recognized by the eyes
Alexey Timoshenko, GZT.ruScientists have developed an inexpensive test that allows you to determine the state of the brain by analyzing the fundus.
The new diagnostic method is based on the fact that the retina is, in fact, an extension of the brain and is subject to the same changes, says Francesca Cordeiro, professor at University College London, one of the authors of an article in the journal Cell Death & Disease describing the new method. "In the future, perhaps, a routine examination by an optometrist will be able to help in the diagnosis of brain diseases," Cordeiro believes.
The retina, in addition to light–sensitive cells – rods and cones - contains many nerve cells that perform image preprocessing. It is not information from each rod or cone that is transmitted to the brain through the optic nerve – the retina's own neural networks isolate a number of details of the picture, and then there is no longer a thick bundle of axons from each of over a hundred million cells, but a much thinner "cable" from the retinal neurons to the visual cortex.
A diagram of the retina of the eye. It's not just a light-sensitive surface -
on top of the sticks and cones (the ratio between them in the figure is distorted,
there are ten times fewer cones that really distinguish colors)
there are several layers of nerve cells.
It was the presence of numerous neurons in the eye itself that allowed scientists to create a new diagnostic method. Experimental mice and rats were injected with a fluorescent dye that bound only to dying cells, and a specially designed laser scanner detected these marks. If there were no marks, this indicated that everything was in order, but if they were detected, the doctors immediately received information about the pathological process that had begun. And, most importantly, in real time.
Of course, it is still necessary to choose the simplest, most effective and harmless method of fluorescent retinal staining and make sure of the safety of the method, but if this can be done, doctors will have the opportunity not only to detect the disease in the early stages, but also to determine how effective the prescribed treatment is.
According to Cordeiro, although the scanner used in the experiments was made specifically for animals, it does not fundamentally differ from the equipment already available in clinics, so the introduction of the method can be relatively inexpensive: doctors will not need new complex devices.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru15.01.2010